No overseas polling stations for council elections and referendum

Polling stations will not be set up overseas for the upcoming local council elections and the referendum on merging future presidential elections and parliamentary elections, according to the Elections Commission (EC).

Both the local council election and the referendum are set to take place from 08:00 am to 04:00 pm on April 4.

Reregistration for the votes closed on Sunday.

The EC reported to the Public Service Media (PSM) on Tuesday that 26,454 people reregistered to vote in a different location.

Enough people reregistered to conduct polling in 21 resorts.

Polling is usually carried out in overseas countries such as India, Sri Lanka and Malaysia, that hosts large Maldivian diasporas.

However, the EC reports that enough people did not reregister to conduct polling in any overseas country this year.

Total 294,937 people are eligible to vote in the upcoming elections. This includes 150,410 men and 144,527 women.

They will be electing 1,356 local government representatives; 678 to local councils and another 678 to women’s development committees.

President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu first announced plans introduce constitutional amendments to combine the two major elections back in 2024. He promoted it as a cost-cutting measure that will save around MVR 120 million in expenses.

However, the opposition has slammed the government for rushing the referendum, and not giving enough time for the public to be educated on the implications of the move.